MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 6, Issue 344, 1 April 1884, Page 5

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

. — .^ : -■ " '- ■ A Fearful "Weapon. Miffin does not sound like the name of a man who would be likely to do anything very dreadful ; nevertheless, a gentleman bearing no noble or more sonorous a name than Miflin has invented a ' gun which, if only it answers the designer's hopes, will . revolutionise modern warfare. Several years .ago Mr Miffin heard a naval officer remark that if anyone could perfect a gun which would fire, or, rather, which would throw dynamite, a new aspect would be put on war, and an aspect disastrous for the side that was not thus armed. Mr Miffin thought about it, and he promptly L perceived the difficulty . If the dynamite cartridge were discharged with gunpowder the shock would explode the dynamite. This would be desperately destructive, bxit only to those who let it off, as the result would inevitably be to burst the gun. Mr Miffin went on thinking about it, and came to the conclusion that the cartridge could be fired with compressed air. On this principle the ! new gun is made. It is twenty-eight feet ! long, and about 4< inches diameter in the bore. The air will give a pressure of some 300 pounds to ( the square inch ; and, unless Mr Miffin is vastly mistaken — and he is persuaded that this is far from being the case — his gun will throw a 31b cartridge a distance of two miles. If all goes well, another gun to throw 1001b of dynamite ten miles will be constructed. Mr Miffiu seems destined to make a noise in the world. Tae Withdrawal of the Sea into tne Earth's Interior. -, There is good reason for believing with Saemann, La Meumer, J?rankland, and Sterry Hunt, that in the remote future of the earth the waters of the sea will be withdrawn into her interior. The process of withdrawal is in reality taking place even now. Enter any cavern, such as Kent's Hole in Devonshire, on the dryest and hottest day, or even after weeks of dry weather, and you shall find the roof wet with the waters which have been slowly making their way from the surface, where they fell in the form of rain months before. Throughout the whole crust of the earth, except in a few spots where rain never falls, the same process is going on all the time. Only a portion of the water which thus falls on the earth ever returns to the surface in the form of springs. Artesian wells show how slowly some of the strata of the earth permit water which has thus reached them to pass through ; but they show also how large a portion of the earth's waters are already beneath the surface. . . . . It may well be that the amount actually withdrawn from the sea surface in this way, and not restored, does not produce a change of level of more than a foot in a thousand years. Still, even that would invoLve a very important alteration in the aspect of the earth in such periods of time as belong to a planet's history. A million years would reduce the sea-level by a thousand feet ; and in a period of time which cannot be reckoned long when compared with the vast periods of which the heavens and the earth speak to us, every trace of water would have disappeared from the surface of the earth. — \ Good Words.' ; Touching Incident at a Fire. . A correspondent sends to the' 'St. James's Gazette ' the following remarkable illustration .of maternal devotion among animals, which occurred in connection with the burning of Imsby's Music Hall. — Mr ; Crowder, one of the proprietors of tlie hall, possessed : a favorite tabby and ' tortoiseshell /cat, which was well known to the frequenters jof the hall. The cat had a family of four i jkittens, which she was allowed to keep in la, basket at the rear of the stage. Soon jafter the fire was discovered the cat was [seen rushing about frantically. She jseveral fon#r^%iH!jijte^ [cfown tEe corridor !in the direction of the jstoge, but each time she was beaten back by the smoke. .',,. At last she seemed, to ; pluck up courage, and making another Tun, she -was lost to " view amidst the smoke. Presently she reappeared with one of the kittens in her mouth. This ' she laid carefully down near to her master'sfeet;in the small hall, which the fire had not touched. Again she rushed through the smoke, and again reappeared witlr a kitten, aud this* manoeuvre jSnejrepeated the third time. She was now apparently half blinded and choked by the smake she had passed through,. and' it wasthought she would be content ; but she seemed unable to rest while she knew that one of her kittens was stillan danger; and", giving a look at the little'^ struggling group on the floor, the cat evading somewho tried to stop.her, once more dashed, down the corridor towards the seething mass of flames which by this .time had enveloped the stage and the lower end of the. hall. Her, return was .anxiously waited for, but she did not; come back. Afterwards, when examining the ruins, some of the firemen came across the charred and blackened remains of the mother and kitten, lying side by side where the fire had overtaken them. . A st^ry about Hawthorne. A charming story was 4old to Mr Conway by an intimate friend of the novelist. One wintry day Hawthorne received his official notification that his services would not be required. With heaviness of heart he repaired" to his' humble home. His young wife recognised the change, and stood watching for the silence to be broken. At length he faltered— "l am .removed, from. office " Then she. left , the. room, She returned with fuel and kindled a bright fire with her. own hands. Next she brought pen* paper ink, and set them before him. Then she touched the* sad man on the; shoulder, and, as he turned to the beam-, ing, face said — " Now you can. write your book." The cloud cleared away. The: lost office looked like.a> cage from which he had escaped. "The Scarlet Letter" was written, and a Marvellous success rewarded the author and his stouthearted wife. She was a woman worth loving. Dying of Thirst. " Did you ever suffer extreme hunger or thirst?" was asked of a Kentucky Colonel who had boen relating some solid stories about himself. " Well," he replied " I never suffered what might be called extreme hunger, but no man knows how to .endure the agonies of thirst better than I do. I remember the time well," he continued retrospectively. I. was on a fishing excursion and became lost in the woods. For three days not a drop passed my lips. My lengthened absence finally caused alarm, and a party was finally sent out in search of me, They found, me lying in an unconscious condition on the bank of a little trout stream, and it was hours before any i hopes of saving me were entertained." " Was the trout stream dry," asked one of the interested listeners. " Dry ? Certainly not. How could I catch fish if the stream were dry?" "Well, I don't see how you ,-ould suffer from thirst wivii a stream oi water close at

what S^QH|^BHHHH^tH a "xoftSnlpP being tlursty^^^^HßHßr^ » "' - The Sensation of being Scalped*"^ Every reader of Fenriimore Cooper's novels, has gloated with mixed feefings of horror and interest over his account of the torture inflicted' by the Red Indians upon their victims. But to get the real delightful feeling of shuddering horror it is necessary to read^the" description o£s»| one who by personal experience can 'tell ||§ how it^f eels to be scaiped. "Imagine," fsaid recently an old frontier's man, who had undergone the experience, to the reporter of an American contemporary, -~- " Imagine some one who hates you with. = the utmost intensity grabbing a handful;^ of your hair while you are lying prostrate^ . . and helpless, and giving it a sudden jerfc^ upward with force enough almost t^i loosen the scalp ; then, while this painful , tension is not relaxed imagine thenotf particularly sharp blade of a knife being^ - • run quickly in a circle around your scalp with a saw-like motion. Then let your , imagination grasp, if it can, the effect^ tiiat a strong, quick jerk en the tuft o£? hair to release the scalp from any clinging particles that may still hold itin x *- its place would have on your nervous "r and physical systems, and you will have some idea how it feels to be ' scalped. Burns Relics. At an auction sale in London the origi- x l nal lease of the farm of Ellisland to Robert Burns, Wxththe disposition of it to another tenant, was sold for the comparatively trifling sum of L33. A copy of the first Kilmarnock edition , of works fetched Lsl; . -.-: : A terrible Situation. Whilst the stationmaster at Saltley station, Birmingham, was cautioning a\i number of people not to cross the. line,.*" an engine came up behindt.Jjimc and/f.j hurled him to the ground; ; -By the^i : exercise of a remarkable amount or self-.o • -■, possession he threw himself flat upon his::, ■ , face, and the locomotive passed oyer ] hiffl£ without so much as bruising him/t^Gttjgli* Ihe felt the fire-box unpleasantly c iJiiffle c i : his coat. : " -'V. ';'-"':.^ r !;!;'/ How to treat a Termagant Wife. , , . In a recent divorce suit in. America thfl husband demanded a , separation . partly -, on the ground that his wife was a terina'v. gant. It transpired that he had adopted' " a novel method of stopping her-tonigue,- . by the help of rats. He knew she had. f t a perfect horrorjof rats,, so he kept, a stock in hand inT a cage, and when she had a:;.: scolding fit he let one loose. Thtf lady<};. immediately fled, and thus he secured peace. We should think that this in*.-,; genious gentleman will find some difli- ; » culty in obtaining a fresh wife. '•' • -i Religious Mania. Y As the worshippers were returning '*' home from the Parish Church, Erith, the other Sunday morning, they' were as--tonised at seeing a maiden lady, wellknown in the district, floundering waist- !| deep in the mud between the two ballast- ' wharves. The lid. of a ship's hatch was obtained, and, the adventuress having been placed upon this, a rope was > at-' tached, and she was drawn ashore. The lady is suffering from religious mania, ; and her only explanation of her eccentric^ • conduct was that God told her to go into 1 her perilous position. „ .'■', A Thistle C ( ost;ume. . ;■-' j. ' The latest idea in ' th^it fashionable 3 ' ' word of New York , that /,, is ■ noticed id" • the newspapers is that of . a .'thistle cos-, '> i tume. It was worn by a lady'who, at "• 7 a recent fancy dress ball in New $br£j ; appeared in"" a costume resembling a _ sttveivlined cloud, with which she^wore ' : grey silk-stockings embroieered wiiKtiHy/ ' silver "thistles, grey S2(,tan sandals, * on '; which her monagram appeared in steel ..;., i ,' beadwork, and grey Suede: jSax.e gloves,, /• on which the device of was again , • apparent in delicat6 hand/ painting. :'--'4: : : ;wbrn"~ffi "&er aark „>■;, hair, and : Punches of ; -the pugna^cioiotsJ '. "■ Wplant, gone to seed,^ fastened baelt'fcfte < v; same folds , of , her ' dress, whiph r was^o^,; ',■' silver-grey tulle over, silver satinV ' \s\-'<-l V